Mount Kunyu昆嵛山
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Shandong · Muping, Yantai / Wendeng, Weihai · On the border of Muping and Wendeng districts; the main peak, Taibo Peak, rises to 923 meters
- Coordinates
- 37.28, 121.75 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- 7th year of the Dading era, Jin (1167) · Wang Chongyang traveled east to Ninghai and, at Yanxia Cave on Mount Kunyu, took Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji, and the other Seven Perfected as disciples — the cradle of Quanzhen Daoism
- Heritage status
- Shengjing Mountain Cliff Inscriptions, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2013)National Nature Reserve
Overview
Mount Kunyu is the cradle of Quanzhen Daoism. In the seventh year of the Dading reign of the Jin dynasty (1167), Wang Chongyang traveled east from the Zhongnan Mountains to Ninghai Prefecture (present-day Muping), where at Yanxia Cave on Mount Kunyu and at sites such as Quanzhen Hermitage and Jinlian Hall he took as disciples the 'Northern Seven Perfected' — Ma Yu, Sun Bu'er, Qiu Chuji, Tan Chuduan, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, and Liu Chuxuan — formally founding Quanzhen Daoism, and the site thus became one of the 'ancestral courts' of the Quanzhen order. Remains on the mountain include Yanxia Cave, Shenqing Temple (built by Wang Chuyi, where Yuan-dynasty steles survive), a stone statue of the Supreme Venerable Sovereign (Laojun), and Jin–Yuan cliff inscriptions. On Mount Shengjing in Wendeng there is a Jin–Yuan carved cliff inscription of the Daodejing (designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 2013). Today the mountain is a National Forest Park and a National Nature Reserve.
Highlights
- Yanxia Cave
- Shenqing Temple
- The Daodejing cliff inscription on Mount Shengjing
- The site where the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen were taken as disciples